Google Fined 145,000 Euros Over Wi-Fi Data Collection in Germany

April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., operator of the
world’s largest Internet search engine, was fined 145,000 euros
($189,230) by a German regulator for collecting wireless-network
data by its cars taking photos for the Street View service.

Google’s cars from 2008 to 2010 captured the data,
including contents of e-mails, passwords, photos and chat
protocols, Hamburg data regulator Johannes Caspar said in an e-mailed statement today. He had reopened the probe after
prosecutors dropped a related criminal case last year.

“In my view, this is one of the biggest data protection
rules violations known,” said Caspar. Google’s “internal
control mechanisms must have severely failed.”

Google, based in Mountain View, California, has been
fined by regulators around the world over the Street View Wi-Fi
breaches, with the French privacy regulator levying a 100,000-euro penalty in 2011.

The company tightened up its systems to address the Street
View issue, Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel,
said in a statement. The project leaders never wanted the data
and didn’t use it or even look at it, he said.

Google is also being watch by privacy authorities as it
debuts new services in competition with Facebook Inc. Earlier
this month, six European Union regulators started
“coordinated” enforcement measures over the company’s new
privacy policy. Google last year introduced a uniform set of
rules, unleashing criticism from regulators and consumer
advocates.

Caspar said fines for negligent data rule violations are
limited to 150,000 euros under German law. The limit should be
raised in order to deter unlawful behavior, he said